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One formula for a career in advanced manufacturing
A Formula 1-style racing car will soon be doing laps around Mountain Creek High School on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast as a result of the joint efforts of Regional industry Career Adviser Sandy Aslett, the Local Community Partnership, the school, the Queensland Departments of State Development and Education, Training and the Arts, and Re-Engineering Australia.
The partnership has seen Mountain Creek High established as a Re-Engineering Australia Design and Technology Hub for advanced manufacturing. The hub’s initial goal is to compete with schools across Australia in Re-Engineering Australia’s Schools Innovation Design Challenge to create the best designed and fastest carbon dioxide-powered scale-model racing car.
The deeper purpose is to equip secondary school students with the skills, knowledge and passion to forge careers in a broad range of advanced manufacturing industries.
Partnering over breakfast
Sandy along with Mervat Thompson, from the Local Community Partnership, engaged with Re-Engineering Australia to establish the school as a hub, recruit other schools to join in on collaborative design and technology projects, and bring in at least $15,000 in sponsorship from industry to add to contributions made by the state government and Re-Engineering Australia.
The partnership’s main strategy was a business breakfast to promote the project and recruit industry and school partners. The gathering of 24 teachers, three student representatives and 12 industry representatives produced an immediate outcome. Five schools signed up to membership in the hub, and one business, Advanced Metal Turning from Yandina, wrote a sponsorship cheque on the spot. Other industry partners are soon to commit to this initiative.
High-tech equipment supplied
Under the scheme, Design and Technology Hubs like Mountain Creek are supplied with a range of advanced manufacturing equipment.
The router, wind tunnel, smoke tunnel and race track, together with the CATIA CADCAM software provided to each hub, are state-of-the-art—they are used in advanced design and manufacturing sectors to develop and rapidly prototype new components and new technologies for commercialisation. Among other projects, the software has been used to design and test virtual aircraft, design water craft and develop Queensland’s tilt train.
Hub schools collaborate with at least three other high schools on design and technology projects. They begin with the Schools Innovation Design Challenge, where they use the hardware and software to design, virtual-test and manufacture their F-1 models, some via online video collaboration tools.
Contact
Sandy Aslett
Ph: 0448 852 742